Chicken and Sausage Gumbo Pot Pie

It’s always gumbo season here at Places In The Home.

My late mother-in-law ate dinner with us at least once a week.

As a young bride with many recipes still to learn and perfect, my mother-in-law took me under her culinary wing and taught me how to make chicken and sausage gumbo.

Over the last thirty years I have refined and reinvented her recipe to make it more my own.

Chicken and Sausage Gumbo Pot Pie is what I came up for #NationalGumboDay.

Gumbo, a Créole dish known for the ingredients okra and filé, is a regional favorite with origins from the French, Spanish, Indian and African residents of the area.

Part soup, part stew, but all flavor-gumbo is made with meat or seafood, tomatoes, onions and bell peppers.

There are many instant roux and boxed gumbo dinner mixes on the market here in Louisiana.

I’ve used most of them at one time or another, but instant roux remains my best friend on the gumbo playground.

Roux is a flour and oil paste for thickening soups and sauces.

Roux

Ingredients

½  cup flour

½  cup vegetable oil

Directions

Chopped onion, bell pepper, garlic, creole seasoning, white wine, green onions, bay leaves, chicken and sausage complete the list of ingredients.

Tabasco sauce, filé, and rice round out the serve with staples.

The Places In The Home majority does not like tomatoes or okra in a gumbo, so to accommodate their delicate palettes I omit these two ingredients.

Chicken and Sausage Gumbo Pot Pie

Ingredients

1  cup Tony Chachere’s instant roux mix

8  cups water

1  can chicken broth

6  boneless, skinless chicken breast tenders

2  1lb. packages smoked sausage, sliced

1  large yellow onion, peeled & chopped

1  bag seasoning blend

1  bunch green onions, chopped

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. celery seed

1 tsp. kosher salt

½ tsp. fine black pepper or to taste

OR in place of salt and pepper season with 1 tsp. Créole seasoning or to taste

1 cup dry white wine

2  cans refrigerated crescent rolls

Directions

Heat water and chicken broth in Dutch oven over medium heat until hot. Add prepared or instant roux mix. Cook, stirring often until roux is dissolved.  Next, add garlic powder, salt, pepper or Créole seasoning and celery seed.  Stir to incorporate.

Add chicken breasts, cooking over medium heat until tender.  Slice sausage and lightly brown in separate skillet.

Remove sausage from skillet, drain and blot excess grease.  Add 1 tablespoon butter, chopped onion and seasoning blend to skillet, sauteing until softened.

Carefully spoon cooked smoked sausage and sauteed onions and seasoning blend into the gumbo pot.

Add the white wine and give it a good stir. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for approximately 1 hour, allowing flavors to marry.

This is the time I pour a glass of white wine for the cook, allowing flavors to merry!

Although French bread, buttermilk cornbread or crackers go well with gumbo for dipping, culinary creativity struck and I thought I would try something new with this latest pot of chicken and sausage gumbo.

Cook 2 cups of long-grain rice (2 cups rice to 4 cups salted water). Place a heaping tablespoon of cooked rice into each crock or oven safe soup bowl. An ice cream scoop works great to dish up an even serving of rice.

Fill the crocks or bowls with gumbo.

Top with chopped green onions, a sprinkle of filé, and/or hot sauce to taste, if desired.

Cover the top of each crock two crescent rolls making sure to completely covering the top.

Bake according to crescent roll package directions.